


Maybe Someday We'll Be More Than Friends

by sungazer_117



Series: A Kiss for Every Occasion [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Feelings Realization, First Dance, Surprise Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:15:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26681245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sungazer_117/pseuds/sungazer_117
Summary: Neck-deep in an infiltration mission really isn't the best time to realize you might have feelings for your partner.
Relationships: Koala & Sabo (One Piece), Koala/Sabo (One Piece)
Series: A Kiss for Every Occasion [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1932424
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34





	Maybe Someday We'll Be More Than Friends

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own One Piece. Credit goes to the creator Eiichiro Oda.

“You ready to go in?” Sabo asked his partner, staring at his outfit in the mirror and picking off any last lingering specks from his fancier-than-normal attire. He and Koala had been assigned an infiltration mission to recover information on the economic situation in a chain of islands. There was a suspicious amount of revenue flowing into the nations, but none of it was being used to improve the kingdoms themselves. Their people went hungry without the money to purchase food to eat or even the seed they needed to grow their own food.

They would have to infiltrate a grand ball funded by that stolen wealth and filled with noble scum from all of the surrounding islands. Their mission would be two-fold in its execution. Sabo and Koala would work the floor, wheedling out gossip about anything and everything. Information gathering was their specialty, and they would not disappoint. Halfway through the night, Koala would retire with a dashing gentleman and use him as a cover to sneak around behind the scenes and get what they needed from their gracious hosts.

“I’m ready. How do I look, Sabo-kun?” she asked. Sabo glanced up in the mirror and finally got a good look at his partner. She had briefly shown him the dress their support team had picked out for her, complaining about how constricting it was, but he had been too distracted at the time to properly entertain the thought of what it would look like when she finally put it on. He found himself openly staring at a pale blue gown that hugged her body like a second skin, words lost on him as his eyes traced over every curve and every perfect detail.

Koala’s dress was made from the finest satin fabrics that swelled around her ample chest and tapered neatly to fit her slim waist. The heart shaped neckline of her gown left plenty of cleavage to admire. The smooth skin of her bare shoulders and upper back was flawless, a fair and even ivory from endless days swaddled in traveling cloaks that would protect her body from the elements and her identity from discovery. Nobody would have guessed by looking at her that an angry red scar was hidden just underneath those beautifully sewn edges.

The bottom of her dress didn’t balloon into a flashy and full skirt at her waist like those that the high-end women wore to hide a few too many pounds around their bellies. Their desperate vanity was always given priority no matter how clumsy it made some of them. Instead, Koala’s dress was skin-tight from her breasts all the way to her knees, catching every curve of her shapely body and flaring out elegantly at the bottom in soft waves of shimmering fabric. Now Sabo could understand why she didn’t like the fit. It made her look glamorous for sure, but she would hardly be able to run let alone fight in such an outfit. Koala shuffled self-consciously, and he caught a quick flash of lacquered toenails and strappy silver pumps that were taller than her normal choice of footwear.

Her hair had been meticulously curled and arranged on top of her head behind a glittering silver and white diadem that would help sell their story as royal cousins from a neighboring island. Koala also wore a matching necklace and earrings that jingling pleasantly whenever she moved her head. 

“S-Sabo-kun?” she asked, and he realized he had been staring at her in the mirror for longer than what was considered appropriate. He ducked his head and grabbed for his hat in an attempt to hide his blush. Koala’s delicate fingers, swathed in white gloves that reached all the way to her elbows, forced him to a dead stop.

“You look fine!” he said a little too quickly, reaching for his hat again, but she was more insistent with her attempts to block him that time. Her movements made her various adornments rattle and she pinned him with an intense glare. There would certainly be hell to pay if he messed up any of the hours of work that had been put into her appearance.

“Sabo-kun, you can’t wear this ratty old thing in there,” she reasoned with a sigh, well unaware that she had yet to let go of him even after he let his hat fall back onto the table where it would be safe for the night. Koala finally found her chance to look at him, and he was somehow more dashing than ever. He had switched out his black coat for a navy blue one that complimented the soft blue shirt he wore underneath. It was the same color as her dress, she belatedly realized. His white cravat was freshly pressed and wrinkle free, like always. A few shiny medals were arranged on his chest, likely false honors that the royals had given themselves, but rather dashing on Sabo’s breast, who deserved them and much more. Brown gloves had been traded for white ones and white slacks disappeared into the tops of polished heeled boots rather than his normal worn combat boots.

_ ‘Blue is a good color on him,’ _ she thought to herself, smoothing down any wrinkles she might have made in his coat sleeve. Her eyes darted up to his when he turned to face her, pausing just for a moment before glancing up at his hair. Koala had convinced him earlier that slicking it back would be better for the occasion, and Sabo had begrudgingly agreed. Looking at it now, she frowned at the stiffness she saw. Pursing her lips, she gestured for him to lower his head. Sabo complied, eyes straining upwards to watch her face morph with concentration.

Koala mussed up all of the tresses of golden hair that he had painstakingly glued down with hairgel. She went so far as to grab a nearby towel off their vanity and rub it over his head to get the majority of the gel and its residue out of his hair. He fought not to grimace when she pulled a little too hard, but he was released from her torment before too long. There was just enough product left in his hair to brush it back in loose handfuls that stayed in place but weren’t plastered flat against his head. It made his hair look softer, tousled by the wind rather than wrestled into submission with a fine comb.

“There, now you’re ready,” she said softly, suddenly aware of how close they were standing. A single lock of hair fell forward over his face, distracting her. When Sabo lifted his hand to brush it behind his ear, his fingers brushed hers. They both flinched away from each other, and suddenly there was a knock on their door signalling that it was time to go.

They left for the party without meeting each others’ eyes even once.

“Remember the plan?” Sabo asked Koala one last time as they exited the carriage that had delivered them to the front of the grand estate. Koala smiled and nodded at him as he offered his hand to help her up the stairs leading inside. They were received as royalty with the fake names stolen from those greedy souls unfortunate enough to have crossed paths with the Revolutionary Army. Getting in was almost pathetically easy.

The party was in full swing seeing as they were fashionably late, but many heads turned to judge them when they arrived. Almost immediately the agents left each other to follow their orders. Sabo was swarmed by young women looking for mates or to escape their own partners as soon as Koala was far enough away to be forgotten. They gushed over his medals and asked about the roguish scar that covered his left eye. He smiled at their advances and turned up the charm, making some of the girls swoon where they stood.

Koala saw him from across the hall, picking out one of the spoiled ladies-in-waiting to dance with after promising a turn to all the others. Her cheeks flushed with emotion as jealousy bubbled up in her chest. She turned to the closest man she could find, he was young and strapping, but undoubtedly hid a less pleasant side underneath his hairspray and a disarming smile. He took her invitation in stride, staring hungrily at the jewels crowning her head. The way he smirked at Koala and led her to the dance floor with a hand resting lower on her back than they both knew was appropriate confirmed that he was slime. Confident, but slime all the same.

“You look beautiful, your highness,” he said as he faced her and bowed. Koala curtsied in return with a wry smile and took his hand when the music started up. She could feel Sabo’s eyes on her and when the prickling on the back of her neck went away, she saw her sleazy dance partner shiver. Sabo’s intense glower had found a new target. Koala hid her grin and continued to dance.

For every new song she found herself a new partner, old, young, handsome and not so much. None were willing to deny the beautiful princess. Sabo grew nearer and nearer with every new girl and every rhythmic beat. At last, when Koala turned after curtseying to her latest catch, she found herself nose to nose with Sabo. She smiled pleasantly enough but knew that he was breaking protocol for some reason so she was on guard.

What surprised her was when he bowed, holding out a hand for her to take. Her pulse quickened when she realized that Sabo was asking her to dance with him. Koala flushed, remembering all of the girls who he had wooed before her and refused to look so desperate to get her hands on him in front of all of the other people that surrounded them, regardless if they were scumbag nobles or not.

She placed her hand in his and the space between them disappeared. They might have discussed new strategies or shared information and persons of interest in the time they were pressed together from shoulder to knee, but they didn’t. Instead, they danced.

Koala found it exceptionally easy to follow his lead, twirling when he released her long enough to do so and stomping her heels in time with his. Sabo chose steps that were easy for her to follow in her tight gown, wobbly spins and shuffles made elegant again with his lead. Her eyes slipped closed when the tempo of the song died down and Sabo pulled her in for a slow dance. Her hand found the back of his neck and she stroked the tension out of his muscles as they swayed back and forth. She wondered how long he had watched her and what it was that had finally made him snap. His touch was gentle, polite, but it was still possessive and she found herself enjoying every moment of it.

They could have danced like that forever and Koala never would have grown tired of it. Sabo was a catch for anyone with proper eyes in their heads, but she had to wonder how many others got to be this close to him and breathe in the scent that was uniquely his. It was buried underneath all of the perfume they had put on to disguise any evidence of their day jobs, but she knew it better than any other. Sabo smelled like parchment and ink from all his time spent hunched over maps or his personal journals, and metal from the pipe that he wielded as his blunt yet effective weapon of choice. But there was another scent that she had never noticed before mixing in with those others that she was so familiar with. When she finally recognized it and identified its origin, she couldn’t help but smile.

Under all of his layers, both physical and not, he smelled just like the campfires they would huddle next to at night on long missions away from their ship and their base of operations on Baltigo. She breathed in and smelled the musky scent of smoke and charring wood without choking on it in the back of her throat and without her eyes watering. The recent addition had obviously come from the Mera Mera no mi, and though it belonged to another before Sabo, Koala felt confident enough to say that he had made it his own.

The song ended rather abruptly and Koala was tossed back into reality as she remembered there was a job to be done. She curtseyed at Sabo as thanks for the pleasant dance, but he grabbed her hand instead of bowing in return. Blinking in confusion, she watched him bend forwards, that one rebellious curl of hair falling into his face again as he chastely kissed the top of her hand. For a man who had to be disciplined and merciless to do his job effectively, he made himself vulnerable enough to press soft lips to her smooth skin. Whether it was intentional or not, Sabo stole the breath right out of her lungs with that quick gesture.

Koala had learned to treasure those moments when he wasn’t second in command of an organization dedicated to overthrowing governments worldwide. She cherished the times when they could sit side by side as friends outside of any political influence. What surprised her more than anything was the thought that someday she wished they could be more than that.

Koala knew without having seen that Sabo didn’t treat any of his other partners to such a delicate kiss before they parted ways. It was a tender declaration of faith in her that she hadn’t seen coming. Sabo’s gray eyes met her blue ones when she reached up and tucked the lock of hair behind his ear again. Then he was gone. She might have stood there staring at nothing with her hand outstretched in the middle of the dance floor, had a familiar face not come and dragged her over to the side.

It was the pig with the wandering hands that she had already danced with once that night. Koala remembered her role and acted on the opportunity, resolving herself to figure out her feelings when they weren’t in the middle of an assignment. She smiled sweetly at the noble, batting long eyelashes and pressing herself against his side, making sure he could feel every inch of her. “Is there anywhere in this boring place where we can have a little peace and quiet?” she whispered into his ear, running her hand up his chest and earning another shudder that was rooted in pleasure rather than fear. She could feel Sabo’s eyes on her shoulders again.

The noble chuckled and wrapped his arm around her back so he had a nice handful of her plump ass. He led her towards the back of the ballroom that fed into the rest of the mansion, entirely unaware of what was coming the moment they were out of sight.

If he had known, he might have chosen a different girl to prey on, rather than the prettiest one with the biggest jewels. If he had lived even a day in the outside world that he loved to scoff at from within his bubble of protection he might have recognized the feeling of being watched as closely as a helpless animal about to be shot dead by a hunter hidden just out of sight. 

Even if he had known that Koala’s companion loved her in a way that surpassed any reasonable blood ties he would have taken her, believing his title made him invincible. Koala herself couldn’t confidently say she knew how Sabo felt, but the young Revolutionary finally realized it after he found himself watching her and only her as the night carried on.

Sabo couldn’t stop the hot jealousy that coursed through his veins every time Koala let herself be touched by filthy hands. His own were stained, he wouldn’t deny it, but he broke protocol anyways, just to get the chance to sway with her. That brief moment confirmed how he really felt and they parted ways with a tender kiss and a gentle brush of her fingers over his face as she tucked his hair behind his ear without an ounce of that hesitation that plagued both of them earlier in the night.

The handsome noble walked on, blissfully unaware of the budding love he was treading over the top of as he pulled Koala close and gave her a squeeze. Sabo’s eyes flashed but he stayed his anger, trusting in Koala to take care of herself. The bastard would get what was coming to him. After all, he had the misfortune of preying on the only woman there who knew how to use the Thousand Brick Fist.


End file.
